There’s a new consumer on the horizon

Today, Ogilvy Noor announces the release of its latest book ‘Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World’, an exploration of what it means to be a young Muslim today and why this generation demands our attention. Written by Ogilvy Noor’s Vice President and award-winning author, Shelina Janmohamed, the groundbreaking book underscores Ogilvy Noor’s global thought leadership around Muslim consumers. It is the first book of its kind to paint an intimate portrait of the attitudes, aspirations, and cultures of a growing population for whom faith and modernity go hand in hand, and for whom consumption is a badge of identity.

As the world’s first bespoke consultancy for building brands with Muslim audiences, Ogilvy Noor has expanded globally to now operate in key markets throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Its vision around the notion of engaging with Muslim audiences through building businesses, products and brands that directly engage with Muslim consumers, is explored in detail throughout ‘Generation M’.

This understanding is vital for businesses and brands. The global Muslim population is expected to increase 73 per cent – from 1.6 billion in 2010, to 2.8 billion in 2050; by 2030 Muslims will make up 26.5 per cent of the global population and in 2050 will equal the number of Christians. The Islamic economy is estimated to be worth US$2.6 trillion by 2020 with Islamic finance worth an additional US$2.6 trillion.

It is Generation M in particular from among the global Muslim population that are driving change. Their youth, their growth and their economic power, makes them one of the most important and exciting rising economic forces, with one third of Muslims today under fifteen and nearly two thirds under thirty.

As one of the 21st century’s most powerful economic forces, author Janmohamed explains that the Muslim lifestyle, which spans across all categories from food to travel to healthcare and more, has resulted in a thriving Islamic economy. This is going hand in hand with a growing consumer concern about the values that brands and businesses are built on and convey. Understanding Generation M’s values is key to engaging with them, and the book offers a deep exploration of those values and how to engage with them.

Shelina Janmohamed, Vice President, Ogilvy Noor and author of ‘Generation M’ said:“For too long, the faithful, modern, creative, brand conscious tech-savvy Generation M has been overlooked by businesses and brands. Yet this is one of the world’s most influential and rising economic and social forces. Generation M goes beyond the statistics, to explore what motivates them, their inner aspirations and how they are going to shape our future.”

John Deschner, CEO, Ogilvy& Mather Malaysia: “Ogilvy & Mather has always been at the forefront of ever-changing global and cultural trends, as we continue to evolve our communications to meet the needs of both brands and consumers. ‘Generation M’ is undeniably an important, growing segment that the industry must acknowledge, and we stand as the leader to successfully engage with this increasingly prominent and influential commercial force.”



About Shelina Janmohamed

Shelina Janmohamed is the bestselling author of Love in aHeadscarf, a memoir about growing up as a British Muslim woman.She is an established commentator on Muslim social and religioustrends, particularly around young Muslims and Muslim women,and writes for the Guardian, the National and the BBC. The Vice President of Ogilvy Noor, the world’s first bespoke global Islamicbranding practice for building brands with Muslim audiences, shewas named one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims, andspecifically one of the UK’s 100 most powerful Muslim women. TheInstitute of Practitioners in Advertising named her as one of the‘Future Female Leaders of British Advertising’

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Watsons Move Your Body Zumba Breaks The Malaysia Book of Record

Asia’s leading health and beauty retailer once again gathered the largest Zumba gathering with its highly successful and record breaking Move Your Body Zumba event. This health initiative presented by Watsons Malaysia attained the Malaysia Book of Record for the Largest Participation for Glow in the Dark Zumba – a one of its kind achievement with 5360 registered participants. 

This time around, Watsons Move Your Body Zumba brought a new level of fun and exciting experience for Zumba enthusiasts with a glow in the night theme and timely to celebrate the Watson’s group 175th Anniversary celebration. This is the second record achieved by Watsons Move Your Body when it successfully received the Malaysia Book of Record for the largest participation in Zumba held last year in Penang with more than 7,000 participants. 

“Watsons is known to champion innovative campaigns and empower the community around us. Watsons brand promise to Look Good, Feel Great is a continuous effort calling all Malaysians to be fit and healthy,” said Caryn Loh, Chief Operating Officer, Watsons Malaysia in her welcoming address to all participants.

The 2016 edition held at Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach saw the enthusiastic Zumba participants sweating it all out with Zumba routines in collaboration with Zumba Fitness, the governing body for Zumba worldwide with its headquarters in Florida, United States. 

“For the third year running, Watsons Move Your Body is becoming an iconic event and as such we want to provide our customers the reward of money can’t buy experience with international renowned Zumba instructors and a line-up of top DJs to entertain,” explained Danny Hoh, Head of Marketing, Watsons Malaysia. 

The thematic Zumba beach party with ‘Glow in the Dark’ theme was hosted by Hitz FM radio announcer Arnold who hyped up the night with stage activities and lucky draws. 

The Watsons Move Your Body Zumba session began and was led by two Zumba Education Specialists, David Velez from Colombia and Michael Thomas from Australia. 

“Zumba is loved and enjoyed by everyone around the world and many people love the fact that Zumba can help burn calories and at the same time enjoy the process. We always describe Zumba as fun, happy and sweat all together and it was great to see everyone having their fun time at this Zumba gathering,” David Velez, Zumba Education Specialist. 

“The joy that people experience from Zumba remains unchanged no matter where I go. In general, the perception towards Zumba is fun. The program is easy to follow and it allows anyone and everyone to consider dance and fitness a part of their lives. And thank you to Watsons for bringing me here to Malaysia and experience Zumba with everyone,” Michael Thomas, Zumba Education Specialist. 

At the end of the Zumba session, the Malaysia Book of Record certificate presentation was awarded to Watsons Malaysia and was received by Caryn and Danny. The presentation was witness together by Watsons Malaysia management team and the Zumba instructors to signify the success of Watsons Move Your Body Zumba. 

The event continued to provide Zumba participants more excitement with non-stop DJ spinning from top DJ line up including Jakeman & Skeletor, Leng Yein, Chuckiess & Whackboi and H3. 

For more information, visit www.watsons.com.my/moveyourbody

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Casio launched the EXILIM EX-ZR5000 with 19mm Super-Wide-Angle Zoom Lens

Casio Malaysia Sdn Bhd. launched the EX-ZR5000 today, the latest addition to its EXILIM family of digital cameras. The new camera features a 19mm super-wide-angle lens that takes breathtaking photos with an expansive perspective. Under the brand concept of “Amazing Gear,” EXILIM cameras continue to deliver new uses and new ways to enjoy digital picture-taking.

The new EX-ZR5000 features a 19mm super-wide-angle lens that takes beautiful, breathtaking photos, capturing the sweeping landscapes and magnificent structures the user may see while traveling. The wide-angle view captures the full background even when taking self-portraits or group shots, to produce appealing photos that enhance the imagination of the viewer.

The new Wide View Photo mode automatically creates a zoom to wide-angle animation, by capturing both a zoomed-in still image and a zoomed-out wide-angle still image. The zoom angle tracks the original position even when the camera is shifted, enabling the user to adjust the composition according to the subject. Animations created using Wide View Photo leave a completely different impression by revealing the background, to produce delightful and surprising moments for sharing on social media.  

The EX-ZR5000 is equipped with a 1/1.7-inch back-illuminated CMOS image sensor that has a large surface for receiving more light when shooting in dim indoor lighting and for high-speed burst shooting. Together with its super-wide-angle 5x optical zoom lens, the camera can capture beautiful night views and attractive images of quick-moving subjects such as children and pets. Make-up mode can be applied while viewing an image to give skin a smooth, fresh look by adjusting the color and smoothness for healthy-looking skin, expressing subtle details and bringing out feminine beauty with remarkable clarity.    

Main Features of the EX-ZR5000

19mm super-wide-angle lens captures breathtaking photos with an expansive perspective
The lens takes beautiful and breathtaking photos, capturing the sweeping landscapes and magnificent structures the user may see while traveling. The wide-angle view captures the full background even when taking self-portraits or group shots, to produce appealing shots that enhance the imagination of the viewer.
■ Super-wide-angle 5x optical zoom  The compact body of the EX-ZR5000 packs a super-wide-angle 5x optical zoom lens. Thanks to the premium zoom feature based on super-resolution technology, the camera maintains high-resolution image quality up to a 10x zoom equivalent.
■ High-resolution F2.7 The EX-ZR5000 has a bright F2.7, wide-angle lens. The molded glass lens delivers high resolution image quality through optical aberration correction and is designed to reduce surface reflection, with a filter to reduce ghosting.

Wide View Photo mode produces zoom to wide angle animations from still images 
Wide View Photo mode automatically creates a zoom to wide angle animation, by capturing both a zoomed-in still image and a zoomed-out wide-angle still image. The zoom angle tracks the original position even when the camera is shifted, enabling the user to adjust the composition according to the subject. Animations created using Wide View Photo leave a completely different impression by revealing the background, to produce delightful and surprising moments for sharing on social media.

Highlight Movie and Highlight Photo create a digest movie or photo collage of the images shot on a specific day 
■ Highlight Movie
Highlight Movie uses an original algorithm to automatically generate a fun digest movie featuring not only group shots and self-portraits, but also landscapes and various other scenes. Now with new wedding-themed soundtracks.
■ Highlight Photo
With the Highlight Photo function, the user just specifies the shooting date and a layout, and the camera will then use image data to automatically select recommended photos from that date to compile a single collage.

Make-up mode helps achieve the ideal look for feminine skin, with special features for taking self-portraits
■ Make-up mode for a healthy, fresh complexion
Make-up mode expresses subtle details and brings out feminine beauty with remarkable clarity, creating natural and fresh-looking skin tones to help achieve the ideal look for feminine skin.
■ Selfie Art for adding artistic effects to self-portraits
Users can add five artistic effects to images already made beautiful with the make-up function. The Elegant effect makes a photo look like it was taken right next to a window, while Foggy adds a softer ambience to the image. In other options, the Fairy effect brings out the feminine qualities of the image, while Nostalgic creates a sentimental, wistful mood. Finally, Vivid makes photos brighter.
■ Tilt-type LCD and Front Shutter optimal for self-portraits
The tilt-type LCD enables users to check the angle of the shot and composition while taking a self-portrait, and the convenient Front Shutter makes it easy to take vertical self-portraits. The Motion Shutter lets users activate the shutter just by waving a hand in front of the camera. These features make it even more fun and easy to take self-portraits.

Inverted processing enables mirror-image shooting  
When the user points the lens and display in the same direction to take a self-portrait, the EX-ZR5000 can process the image as it appears on the screen, inverting it from left to right.

Large 1/1.7-inch sensor clearly captures moving subjects 
Combined with the bright F2.7, wide-angle lens, the 1/1.7-inch back-illuminated CMOS image sensor, which has a large surface for receiving more light when shooting in dim lighting and for capturing quick-moving subjects such as children and pets, always captures the decisive moment.

High-speed technology delivers responsive picture taking
■ EXILIM Engine HS Ver. 3 for rapid camera response
Thanks to its dual-CPU and two parallel image processors, the EX-ZR5000 offers a fast startup time of only 1.2 seconds, high-speed autofocus in 0.17 seconds, a lightning-fast shutter response of 0.015 seconds, and a rapid capture interval as short as 0.22 seconds.
■ High-speed burst shooting to capture every movement
The EX-ZR5000 is capable of high-speed burst shooting of 12-megapixel images at up to 30 frames per second and with a maximum of 30 shots. If the AF Burst Shooting mode is used, up to 6 frames per second and a maximum of 30 shots are possible while focusing in on a moving subject.

Bluetooth® Smart enables and controls connection with smartphone 
Bluetooth® Smart enables and controls the constant connection between the camera and a smartphone with the EXILIM Connect application installed.

■ One Time Share feature for sharing images without needing to exchange addresses Using the Scene photo-sharing app, a QR Code*4 is generated on the camera LCD. The QR Code can be read with a smartphone to easily share images, without needing to install the Scene app on the other smartphone. ■ User-selectable transfer mode
In addition to transferring all images, the camera is equipped with a mode to automatically transfer to a smartphone only those photos shot with face detection while the tilt LCD is open, and modes to transfer only photos in which faces are detected or without faces. The user can also view and select which images to transfer, and simultaneously view other images or shoot still images or video during transfer.
■ Location data can be added to images transferred to a smartphone
By enabling location data on a smartphone, location data for the time the photo was shot can be added to images sent to the phone. A smartphone app that works with location data can be used to show where images were taken on a map, providing a fun way to relive a trip.

A variety of features ensure beautiful images in many situations 
■ HS Anti Shake delivers precise correction on five axes of pitch, yaw, vertical shift, horizontal shift, and roll
■ Premium Auto Pro function produces beautiful photos with just a press of the shutter button, using optimal settings and processing
■ HDR for beautiful images of high-contrast scenes
■ Triple Shot captures the moment as well as the moments before and after, by bracketing three consecutive shots
■ Blurred Background shooting mode beautifully blurs the background of the shot to highlight the subject
■ All-In-Focus Macro mode keeps everything in the shot in sharp focus, from up-close subjects to distant backgrounds
■ Macro goes down to 3 cm, and Magnifying Glass mode helps to further enlarge close-up subjects
■ Capable of high-speed burst shooting at as high as ISO 25600, the HS Night Shot function lets users shoot in low-light conditions without worrying about camera shake
■ Time Lapse plays back long-time changes in a short time in a movie 

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